Gender Stereotypes Within the Culture of Childhood

From: Carlie

            Gender stereotyping is inevitable because of how our society divides females and males. The toys that are made for children are mostly black and white, meaning boys play with boy toys and girls play with girl toys. Katha Pollitt’s “Hers: The Smurfette Principle” brings attention to social media, commercial ads, TV shows and movies by amplifying one female role among several male roles; “…the female is usually a little sister type, a bunny in a pink dress and hair ribbons who tags along with the adventurous bears and badgers.” TV shows and movies then have an impact on children’s toys because the manufacturing industries create toys based off the most popular books, social media ads, TV shows, and movies. The males are played out to be these strong, intelligent, and adventurous beings, while females are played out to be soft, sweet, and nurturing beings. None of these characteristics are bad, but they limit both boys and girls from exploring outside of our society’s bubble. As a result, gender stereotyping is reflected in toys; boys are expected to play with trucks, action figures, and super heroes, and girls are expected to play with kitchen utensils, dolls, and princesses.

            The reason for the continuous cycle of gender stereotyping is because of the way children are raised. The article “The “Two Cultures” of Childhood” states, “According to gender schemas theory (Bem, 1981), children learn schemas from their social environments, but they also willingly adopt and exaggerate distinctions between the sexes” (Rudman). At a young age children brains are like sponges, they start to absorb qualities of people based on whether they are more masculine or more feminine, and then use that knowledge to determine which toy is for which sex: “Reactions to novel toys confirm that children do not merely learn by rote which toys are for boys and which are for girls, but extract general qualities that distinguish masculine from feminine” (Rudman). Society influences children to see the world as gender segregated, giving them a small chance to overcome the cycle of sexism.  

            When boys play with girl toys or girls play with boy toys, they are told it is wrong. In my picture, I represent a little girl trying to overcome society’s norm, but being trapped because of gender stereotyping. The focus of my picture is my niece, Ella, dressed up as Batman, which is a very unusual character for a little girl to dressed up as. Batman is classified as a strong and intelligent super hero, all characteristics of supposedly being masculine. Pollitt’s article says, “Little girls learn to split their consciousness, filtering their dreams and ambitions through boy characters while admiring the clothes of the princess.” Is it such a crazy idea for a person to be both masculine and feminine?

             Ella is the only object in color to symbolize that there is more to gender than simply black and white; gender is a spectrum. Ella is also taking up most of the space in the photo to show how courageous it is to go against society’s norms. The camera angle is purposely straight on to emphasize that boys and girls should have equal opportunities no matter what sex they identify with.  A female can like “boy” activities and a male can like “girl” activities; it’s not fair for society to tell us we must be one or the other. The background is filled with stereotypical girl toys, such as a chalkboard for a teacher, a doll house and a kitchen set for a mother, and other soft domestic based toys for a nurturer, which I put in black and white to represent the limits and simplifications of choices for girls. Typical girl toys like these influence young women to pursue in domestic based careers, aka the lower paying careers. Another key part of my photograph is Ella’s dad putting a tiara on top of her head to symbolize a patriarchal society: “…children’s entertainment is mostly made by men” (Pollitt).  Ella’s dad isn’t trying to hurt her in anyway, but that is just what he is accustomed to. Dads are thinking a girl cannot be Batman, what is she thinking? Ella’s body language and facial gaze are showing she is over the gender stereotypes and ready for equal rights for both men and women. A girl can be just as strong and tough as a boy, and a boy can be just as sweet and nurturing as a girl.

Work Cited

Pollitt, Katha. “Hers; The Smurfette Principle.” The New York Times, 7 Apr. 1991.

Rudman, Laurie A., et al. "The Two Cultures of Childhood." The Social Psychology of Gender:   How Power and Intimacy Shape Gender Relations. The Guilford Press, 2015, 59-63.